Chapter 42.

  The day, the sun warmed up Soren's backside, and he zily got up—this was a very rare occurrence for the usually diligent and early-rising Soren. Even Lucius and Narcissa in the living room couldn't help but murmur quietly, speg about what Soren had experiehe day before.

  Soren touched his lips, recalling the passionate kiss before parting st night, and he couldn't suppress the smile on his face.

  ting the days, summer vacation was about to end, and there was less than a week until school started.

  When he went downstairs for breakfast, Lucius spoke first: "Soren, we have an important lunch meeting today with the Parkinson and Boke families. Drad Pansy will also attend. I noticed you seemed a bit tired this m, so I didn't reserve a seat for you. I think you should just rest at home!"

  Soren thought for a moment and replied, "Okay, Father. I might go to Diagon Alley ter to buy some school supplies, and I will get Draco's share as well. But... I want to know how these two families currently view the Malfoy family. Do you have fiden keeping them stable, Father?"

  As Soren's strength gradually increased, and hearing that he had quietly started building es in the Ministry of Magic, Lucius began to be willing to expin some family affairs to the two brothers.

  Lucius said, "Well, it should be fine for now. That old fox from Boke has always been a feter; he runs faster than anyone wheuation goes south. As long as I, Lucius, still have influen the Ministry of Magic, he might waver a bit, but he would never betray the alliaweewo families. As for Parkinson, that won't happeher. Not to mention that our two families have a closer i retionship—" At this point, a smile couldn't help but appear on Lucius's cold face.

  "I've heard that Pansy really likes our Draco!" Soren quickly nodded in firmation. Draco, oher hand, rarely showed a shy expression, and his face turned red.

  Soren had always known that Lucius and Professor Snape maintained a very close retionship; both had beeh Eaters, and Lucius clearly uood how important the identity and status of a Potions Master and Hogwarts Headmaster were. Therefore, Soren was not surprised that Lucius knew about the brothers' behavior at school.

  "Then I uand, Father. If there's a need for me to help, please don't fet to tell me."

  pared to family affairs, Narcissa was clearly more ed about another matter. Upon hearing the gossip about Drad Pansy, she immediately became displeased. Why was she the st to know? She gred fiercely at the three of them, "Let's put the family matters aside for noas I pletely unaware of Drad Pansy's situation?"

  Seeing that a battle was about to start, Soren lowered his head, pretending to be busy with his breakfast.

  Narcissa, notig that Lucius and Draco couldn't answer, naturally turned her firepower towards Soren, "So, Soren, what about you? Do you have something to fess to your mother? Have you gotten close to any girls at school?"

  Soren first gave Draco a subtle warning ghen made a "10 Galleons" gesture uhe table, and finally preteo ily shake his head, "How could that be? Mother, look at my grades; you should know that I've been w hard studying most of the time. Early romance hinders academic progress, which is uable, uable..."

  Seeing that keeping quiet was beneficial, Draaturally stood by Soren's side. Although Draco wasn't short on money, being able to take advantage of his brother still made him quite happy!

  Lucius naturally knew about Soren's close retionship with the Greengrass girl and the Shafiq girl at school. He himself had a favorable attitude towards Soren and the two girls—both girls came from the Sacred 28 pure-blood families and were outstanding in appearance, knowledge, and family background, making them worthy of being members of the Malfoy family.

  Moreover, the Malfoy family had indeed been a bit too thin in terms of offspring over the past few geions. He and his father Abraxas Malfoy had entered two wizarding wars, which made it impossible to expand the family. Now that it was a time of peace, it was time for the geion to branch out.

  Since Soren was unwilling to funt, and his son was such a determined person, Lucius wouldn't be so tactless as to reveal his son's secret, so this matter was left as it was.

  After the departure of his parents and Draco, Soren hurried to Diagon Alley—he had arranged with his family that after the dihey would also go to Diagon Alley to take the Night Steed carriage t Soren home.

  Soren, alone, grabbed a handful of Floo Powder, spri into the firepce, and shouted "The Leaky Cauldron," arriving at Diagon Alley.

  Soren did not rush into Diagon Alley but instead cast a simple transformation spell in a er where no one aying attention to increase his height. The merlin's robe transformed into a mysterious-looking bck cloak with his i. After carefully cheg to ehere were no fws, Soren turned into Knockturn Alley at the interse in front otts.

  This was Soren's sed visit to Knockturn Alley. The st time, he had been with Lucius and Drad had not had the ce to explore. This time, it was a good opportunity to broaden his horizons. Soren ed his cloak tightly around himself, hands in his pockets, and wandered aimlessly through Knockturn Alley. Along the way, many oddly-shaped figures passed by him. Most of them were hiddeh their cloaks, making their faces hard to see.

  S the rgest shop in Knockturn Alley—Bin and Burkes—and after a moment's thought, he walked inside.

  As he pushed the door open, a wind chime jingled. A ma over appeared at the ter, repeatedly smoothing down his greasy hair that hung over his face. He g Soren as he entered and revealed a sinister smile, saying, "Shopping or trading?"

  This man was Mr. Bin, the owner of Bin and Burkes.

  As Soren knew, Bin and Burkes was established by the Bin family ie 18th tury. The young head of the family, Caractacus Bin, was determio pete with another alchemical family, the Notts, in the field of alchemy. Boldly, he opehis shop in Knockturn Alley to facilitate his colle and tact with alchemical items reted to dark magic.

  Under his careful ma, the shop quickly became the rgest in Knockturn Alley. Later, it even absorbed the Bin family as a vassal family. Mr. Bin was thus able to buy shares in the shop and became the manager after old Biired. The dinner Lucius mentiohat m was with old Bin and Mr. Parkinson.

  This shop primarily sold a magical items, but iy, it was mostly dark magical items. It could also serve as a pawn shop, and Mr. Bin particurly favored those strange, uable dark magical items.

  "I'll take a look first," Soren said in a rough voice, having altered his vocal toh a voice-ging spell.

  Upon hearing this, Mr. Bin immediately lost i, returo the ter, and began wiping the surface of a gss case.

  Snced around and saw a withered human haing on a cushion ihe gss case—the Glorious Hand he had seen here st year when he came with Lucius. This item, when a dle ced upon it, only illuminated for its holder. Soren shook his head and tio look around.

  On the ter were various human bones, a deck of pying cards stained with blood, and an old gss eyeball that seemed to be watg him. Terrifying masks hung on the walls, and long, sharp, rusty instruments dangled from the ceiling. Soren's magical eye could see that these items were all surrounded by dangerous magical fluctuations.

  "That is a Mask of Pain. It has a deterrent and intimidating effect, sidered a weak form of soul magic," Mr. Bin said, gng at Soren and notig his apparent i in the masks hanging on the wall.

  "Give me this mask. How much?" Soren asked, his i piqued by Mr. Bin's mention of soul magic, pointing at one of the ghostly masks.

  "29 Galleons, er," Mr. Bin replied, gng at the wall. Soren did not haggle and promptly ted out 29 Galleons, pg them on the ter.

  Seeing the er shtforward, a subtle glint of cold light fshed in Mr. Bin's eyes, but his face remained full of sincere smiles as he said, "Esteemed er, our shop also has a family heirloom. Would you be ied in seeing it?"

  Seeing Soren nod, Mr. Bin took out a long box and ope to reveal a beautiful opal neckce.

  He did not touch the neckce but simply poio it, saying, "This is a magieckce passed down through the Bin family. It possesses a wonderful magic that accelerate the growth of magical power. You know that everyone's magical power only grow slowly with age. With this neckce, you speed up that growth..."

  This person has a really dirty heart; no wonder he run a shop here, and it's the best business around. A surge of anger rose in Soren's heart as he said with a half-smile, "Why don't you wear it for me to see first, Mr. Bin?"

  Seeing the cold light in Soren's eyes and the obvious chill in his voice, Mr. Bin quickly ged his mind and decided not to offend this er again. He bout away the neckce. "I'm very sorry, esteemed guest; perhaps I made a mistake," he said as he walked into a small room aurned with an a-looking cloak.

  "To express our shop's apologies, you take a look at our store's treasure. Although this cloak is not a family heirloom, it is still of great value. It protect you from a high-iy curse at a critical moment; only a death curse break through its defenses."

  Mr. Bin's expression was sihis time he genuinely wao make a deal. However, Soren already had the high-defense magiight Star, so the cloak seemed somewhat redundant, and he politely deed.

  After seeing the store's treasure, Soren lost i in tinuing to browse and walked out of the shop without looking back.

  [Pain Mask Acquired!]

  Walking a few more steps into the depths of the Knockturn Alley, a small shop called "Giant Spider" had its door wide open. Ihere seemed to be many strange creatures locked in cages. Soren thought he might find the Illusio Grass he needed here, so he walked in.

  "Wele, esteemed guest." At the back of the shop, a Hag wearing a wide-brimmed pointed hat said in a hoarse and eerie voice, "Please feel free to browse."

  S the Hag and then began to look at the creatures in the cages oher side. True to its name, knockturn Alley, Soren saw many rare and dangerous creatures here, such as the Niven Snake, Long-Horned Water Snake, Fire Ash Snake, Mortar Mouse, and so on. After a moment of refle, he casually asked, "Do you sell Illusio Grass here?"

  The Hag stared ily at Soren, her gaze filled with ess. "You must be jokieemed guest. Illusio Grass is a Css A prohibited trade item; even in knockturn Alley, no one dares to trade it openly. How could I possibly have such a thing here?"

  Soren sneered, "I'm not joking; I just believe that in this world, as long as there are enough bes, there is nothing that 't be traded." With that, he turo leave.

  The Hag said in a barely audible low voice, "If you really want it, you find someone. He is my supplier; he has many es and might be able to help you..."

  Soren took out two gold Galleons and pced them on the ter, coldly saying, "Give me his name and taformation."

  The Hag calmly put the Galleons into a drawer and then slowly took out a piece of paper, writing down the name "Nichos" along with coordinates for a location in the Bck Forest in Germany. "Esteemed guest, he is a professional smuggler, and his name has been shielded by multiple plex and profound spells. Even owls 't find him; you must personally make the trip."

  "The Bck Forest?" Soren murmured to himself. It seemed this task would require him to personally go there with Dobby using apparition, as he really couldn't trust Dobby's poor intelligence when dealing with these shadowy figures.

  After finding the clue he needed for the Illusio Grass, Soren checked the time and was too zy to tinue wandering in Knockturn Alley. He called Dobby back—Dobby had repaired the secret passage on the fifth floor a few days ago, and Soren had just the ask for him: to travel to the Bck Forest and find Nichos's location, and theurn to take him there via apparition.

  Thinking about how he would have to apparition all the way from Engnd to Germany iure, that dizzying travel method made Soren feel a bit apprehe seemed it was also time to prioritize developing a bracelet that could overe various magical disorientation spells.

  Soren ged bato his usual attire auro Diagon Alley, refleg on his experiences in Knockturn Alley, as if he had traversed two entirely different worlds.

  ****

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